Robert Hall

I'm just thankful my furnace hasn't crapped out and the power has stayed on...kept the house a comfortable 72 in the day and 68 at night with the subzero temps and wind outside the last 24+ hours. Several people in my neighborhood were reporting outages yesterday on the neighborhood FB group (but not on my street). With all the content I have crammed in my garage from the farm clearout last summer, my Jeep sat outside in the cold. I tested the remote start this morning, fired right up. (My sister's Trax fit in, she's thinking of trading it on something larger before she heads off to Myrtle Beach in a couple weeks to get out the Ohio winter for 6 weeks).

It's 1F now after about 20 hrs of negative temps. 'warming up' to 10 by this evening. Probably ice on my driveway under the snow. Haven't been outside since Thursday evening. Warm, power on, just made my 2nd cup of coffee...

-4F here outside Cleveland, blowing snow and very windy. Was 40F at midnight. Power is on, just baked some taquitos. Enjoying them with a margarita. Off until Jan 3rd, hope to have better weather next week to get out and about...

@surreal1272happy birthday! Hope you are somewhere semi-warm for the holiday weekend.

Denver was the only place I’ve lived where I’ve used public transportation. The light rail is extensive and effective. But I usually would drive my Jeep to a light rail station then take the train downtown or elsewhere. I’ve never lived anywhere that rail or bus was more convenient than driving most of the time. Growing up in rural Ohio and the Florida Keys, driving was a necessity to get anywhere. I don’t see that changing for me anytime soon. And since I don’t have a commute anymore, I enjoy driving more since I usually am doing it for fun (sightseeing, out to dinner, to the beach, etc)

True...plenty of buses and now a bit of light rail in the Phoenix metro area, but none of it would have been practical for my commutes...the 9 years I lived there, I lived in North Central Phoenix...one job worked downtown (which the bus might have worked, but it was only a 15 min drive), but mostly I worked in the burbs...27 mile freeway drive south to Chandler. SE to downtown Tempe/ASU area. East on surface streets to downtown Scottsdale. Freeways to NE Scottsdale. Commuting by car/SUV was the only practical solution for me.

Nope, AMC Marlin. Nothing Buick about it. Made for 3 years--'65-67. The '65-66 were based on the midsized Rambler Classic, basically a huge fastback grafted onto a square sedan. The '67 was based on the redesigned for '67 full size Ambassador, and had much better styling, IMO. '65 and '67 below. '66 looked much the same as '65. For comparison, here is what the regular 2drs looked like--'65 Classic and '67 Ambassador:

That side window treatment was so weird... it did look slightly better the final year when they moved to a bigger body, IMO. Haven't seen any Marlins in many years.

When I worked for this company (a workers comp insurance software company based in Denver, founded by Saskatchewan natives) there were at least 50 Saskatchewan transplants working there...all knew each other from elementary school/high school/etc in Regina...15-20 years later, many still live in Denver and work for what the company morphed into, many are spread out across the country... I do miss the mountains. I think I'm going to take a week or so trip next year and go visit friends in Denver and drive around the state.

Saw a couple sharp older trucks in parking lots yesterday afternoon. A very clean ‘92-96 Ford F150 XLT regular cab long bed in an unusual two tone—like an apricot/orange with tan insert down the side. Looked like original paint. Later saw a clean mid 90s teal GMC Yukon 2dr w/ 6.5 turbo diesel decals. Don’t recall ever seeing a 2dr GM diesel SUV.

Interesting...never heard of AGM either. I'm pretty oblivious to batteries...used to just having the dealer replace when needed or calling AAA when a vehicle won't start.

Don't think I've ever seen the term 'flooded' battery. Back in June I bought a baker's dozen of them (3 for my old cars, 10 for my brother's paperweight vehicles as part of cleanup for auction)...EverStart at Walmart, their cheapest model batteries--ranged from $65 to $150 depending on the vehicle IIRC.

I rarely watch tv with commercials, but over the weekend was watching a series on FreeVee about English country houses and the Browns-Texans NFL game yesterday, so I got to see new car commercials...the new ads for the Chevy Bolt EV and Equinox EV are good ('EVs for everyone') and the ads for the Cadillac Lyriq (one all red-tinted and one all gold-tinted)..it's a sexy CUV, looking forward to seeing one in person.

There is worse... I remember when I lived in Michigan Little Caesars was a big chain in the state...horrid...nothing but grease. I try avoid national pizza chains, there are plenty of good local shops and local chains here in NE Ohio.

Those funky NW Territories plates are indeed a rare sighting in the US. The only time I've ever seen one in the US was in Denver about 20 years ago. Most of my Canadian coworkers were from Regina, SK and had been in the US 5-10 years when we worked together, but there was one guy who had just moved down from the NW Territories...and....he had a red '96 Mustang GT. After a few years in Denver, he replaced it with a black '06 Mustang GT. He was an SUV denialist, and used Blizzaks in the winter. (When I lived in Colorado, I had my '87 Mustang GT, but I would never have had it an only car...my '00 Grand Cherokee was more appropriate for year round use in the Centennial State).

Beautiful....could you imagine automakers investing in beautiful 2dr coupes and convertibles instead of the usual CUVs...

19F this morning…and sunny. Brrrr. Way colder than I remember mid Nov the last 5 years. Just a light dusting of snow so far, nothing like points further north east up Lake Erie...

Probably too much complexity. Not just M-B, though. Most vehicles today have insane amounts of electronics, wiring, etc...too many complex parts crammed into tight spaces. Complexity for the sake of complexity. Disposable appliances not designed to repair.

Agreed. I’ve always preferred hatchbacks over sedans when models offered both body styles.

I had a couple Fusions as rentals in 16/17 and thought they were quite nice, compared favorably to the other rentals I had then (2 generations of Malibu, Impala, Passat and Altima). Good looking car..too bad the US never got the 5dr hatchback or the estate like Europe did w/ the Mondeo twin.

Gross... I couldn't imagine doing that to a house...but then again, I've never cared what the mainstream prefers.

I'm sick of gray interiors. They just look cheap and generic...pretty much all the automakers are guilty of crappy gray plastic interiors... black interiors are like caves... They need color choices.....and wood trim in 'premium' models. (there is some weird obsession with making everything gray these days..look at all the houses getting painted gray inside and out, gray painted over bricks, wood, gray kitchens, floors....'remodel gray'....barf. )

Exterior looks sharp, interior seems kind of plain. Needs color...too much gray inside.. One styling detail I wonder about..those 'blades' above the taillights on each side of the hatch probably should have been windows.. probably very dark in the back w/ the thick pillars and the 'blades'..

I liked Colorado quite a bit...the diversity of the Denver metro area, the wide variety of tech job opportunities, the vistas of the mountains. Definitely dryer than the PNW. Lots of Subarus, but also lots of Jeeps. Moving to Arizona was a family thing really, ultimately not a place I wanted to go. I could see myself moving back to Colorado maybe when I retire in 15 years or so.. a small town in the mountains like Salida, Buena Vista or Pagosa Springs could be a great place to live and explore. I do like hiking and the outdoors, not to the extremes that others do (I'm not into tent camping), but I do love getting out in nature...I enjoy exploring the many parks in NE Ohio and its' North Coast.

'latitudes and attitudes'... Though I lived in the Florida Keys for 6 school years growing up, and 11 years in Colorado and 9 years in Arizona, NE Ohio has always felt like 'home' to me...been way happier the last 5 1/2 years I've lived back here than I did in Arizona.